Bruised, hoarse, tired, sweaty, pained, and I had way more fun than you

Join Date: Nov 2009

Location: Massachusetts

Posts: 432

Arch Enemy -- Worcester, MA -- January 23rd, 2010

Hm… I thought by this time someone else would have posted the lists from last night. Oh well, here goes…

I had a spot on the rail for the whole show, so I can’t report on what the pit was like at all. Almost everyone that was up there managed to stay for the whole time, so I guess it couldn’t have been too insane.

Mutiny Within’s setlist blatantly yanked from KvltOvPersonality. I can only guarantee “Awake” and “Year of Affliction.”

Awake
Images
Oblivion
Suffocate
Year Of Affliction
Lethean

I didn’t know anything about Mutiny Within before the show, and spent most of their set thinking they were good, but not anything overly exciting. However, I seriously enjoyed “Year of Affliction.” I’m a huge sucker for tapping, and Dan and Brandon are quite talented at it. The last song kicked ass, too.

Arsis:

Forced To Rock
?
A Diamond For Disease
We Are The Nightmare
The Sadistic Movements Behind Bereavement Letters
The Promise Of Never
The Face Of My Innocence

I’m a big Arsis fan, but something about their performance was off. It could have been that the crowd didn’t seem to get them, and while some of the songs were played really really well, others sounded almost garbled (hence why I don't know #2). Granted, that could have been because I was up front where the sound is often messy, but I don’t know…

The guys from Arsis were apparently doing shots with people by the merch table for the rest of the night. I think I saw Nate and Nathaniel on my way out, but they were a little, erm, busy? (read: boobies)

Exodus:

Bonded By Blood
Iconoclasm
A Lesson In Violence
Children Of A Worthless God
Piranha
Deathamphetamine
Blacklist
War Is My Shepherd
Strike Of The Beast
The Toxic Waltz
Shovel Headed Kill Machine

Holy shyt, holy shyt, holy shyt. Exodus blew the fucking roof off. Say what you will about it being a repeat set, they didn’t care and the audience REALLY didn’t care. They were spot on the whole time, and it honestly felt like they were headlining. I will never NEVER get tired of hearing Children of a Worthless God and Deathamphetamine. Gary Holt handing me a pick afterwards was a nice touch.

We waited for what felt like forever for Arch Enemy, but that gave everyone a chance to chill out and fill their lungs with delicious smoke machine smoke. Seriously, Worcester? Did we really need that much?

Arch Enemy did not disappoint. They took everyone’s already over-stimulated ears and bodies, put us through the proverbial grinder, and ruined us for all future shows. Angela is vicious and the Amott brothers are amazingly seamless, not to ignore Daniel and Sharlee. Their set was the perfect level of intense and mellow, and I, for one, really enjoyed those solos as a reprieve from the chaos plus a chance to see the spotlight on someone else. Every song was better than the last.

AWESOME SHOW!

Potential photos to come later, as I took about 100. I’m not yet sure if any of them were worth the energy spent to get them.

I wasn't feeling very much like going crazy last night, so instead of my usual fighting for a rail spot, I sat in the center of that banister/wall/whatever you'd like to call it behind the floor. Perfect view and the sound was pretty clear, even if the guitars were a little muffled. The pits weren't crazy all night, but when they broke out they broke out. The Wall of Death during Exodus was a nice touch, and there were some nice circle pits (including one where there was a 15+ person pileup, which was amusing to watch cause it didn't seem like anyone could get up).

Mutiny Within: I had a pretty similar response as you did. They weren't fantastic or anything. I can confirm that the vocalist announced "Oblivion" before the song, too. Also, I think his harsh vocals sound a bit too forced. If he only sang clean I think the band would be a bit better.

Arsis: Same here, too. I love Arsis, and I've wanted to see them for almost 4 years now. But there WAS something off with the crowd and with the sound. I didn't recognize #2 either, though, so I can't help ya there. It was awesome to finally hear "A Diamond for Disease" live.

Exodus: Good, but I dunno, there just was something lacking for me. I was really tired at the time, though, so that might have been it. They put on a good set and the crowd was really into them, but I just couldn't get into it.

Arch Enemy: After a damn 40 minute wait, they did a great job of outshining the rest of the bands performance wise IMO. "The Immortal" was a brilliant opener, and...well, it was just an awesome set overall. I would definitely like to see them again (a change from my perspective at the start of the set, where I figured this was my chance to see them but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to do it again).

Good show, probably would have been great had I not started off exhausted. Bought an Arsis t-shirt and a copy of "Starve for the Devil", which they have copies of at the merch stand though it's not out for another few weeks. Still haven't checked it out though.